Getting back into First Table with Cathay Rendezvous, Bristol

Before we became parents, and when our son was very small, we used First Table quite a bit for early dinners. Over the years as bedtime routine and toddler mayhem kicked in, we fell off the bandwagon. Recently, I saw it on instagram and decided to redownload the app and have now properly fallen back in love with it. Starting a few weeks ago with a visit to Cathay Rendezvous on King Street in Bristol. I was meeting friends after work and we wanted an early dinner. What’s better than an early dinner? A half price one!

What is First Table?

If you haven’t heard of it, First Table is an app that gets you a hefty discount (up to 50%) off your food bill at various restaurants for booking the first table of the sitting. This can be breakfast / lunch / dinner and usually whenever the restaurant is quietest. There is usually a choice of times covering the week so it’s not last minute either, you can book ahead.

It’s really simple:

1. Pick your city and browse the restaurants on offer
2. Choose your date and time slot, and book. First table makes its money with a small non-refundable booking fee.
3. Turn up, order what you like and get the discount on your bill. Drinks are usually not included, just an fyi.

Where and how can you use it?

This is the bit that surprised me getting back into it. Previously, I’d only used First Table in Bristol but it’s also in Cardiff (great news) and loads of other places around the UK including London, Manchester, Bath, Birmingham, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Belfast.

If you’re signing up fresh, it’s worth hunting down a referral or promo code before you do, because most of them shave the booking fee down to next to nothing. Sign up with this one and you’ll get £3 credit towards your first booking fee. You then book your table directly through the app. Easy peasy!

What’s in it for the restaurants?

Having spent some time working in hospitality marketing, I can see just how useful this must be for restaurants. It’s a way for to fill tables during the quiet early hours. This helps in the obvious way – boosting revenue, but also helps make the place look buzzy and full which in turn attracts walk ins and repeat trade.

Putting it to use: Cathay Rendezvous, Bristol

This is what pulled me back in. I’d walked past Cathay Rendezvous on King Street more times than I can count and never gone in, so I used First Table to finally book it for me and two friends last week. Once there, our eyes were bigger than our bellies and we decided that since we had the 50% off, we may as well go all out and order the three-person set menu!

A little history while I’m here. If you know King Street in Bristol, you’ll immediately know it. It’s a tired but majestic looking grade two listed building built between 1738-1740 (according to good old wikipedia). The site housed one of the UK’s first public libraries right back in 1613 and the building there now was also a library until 1906. Since 1986, it’s been a Chinese restaurant (the oldest one in the city) but sadly I think that’s the last time it was decorated! None of the original interiors survive inside and it’s pretty shocking to see the way its been carved up into tired spaces complete with ceiling squares and swirly carpet. The once grand staircase remains, albeit worn and faded, although it only takes you to the toilets and not what I imagine was once a stunning wood panelled library.

But what did we eat?

Decor aside, this is a blog about food, so let’s focus on that. The food was good, better than we’d expected! Looks can be deceiving.  As I said, we went full hog with the set meal for three, not realising just how much food there would be!! We started with the usual starter spread (satay, spring rolls, prawn toast etc), followed by duck pancakes and then beef in black bean sauce, sweet and sour chicken, char siu, egg fried rice and steamed vegetables.

Our only criticism is that the char siu was dry. I mean really dry, which was a shame the waiter had very kindly let us swap it out from a different dish on the set menu. Other than that, everything was great. Even though the starters looked greasy, they really weren’t. There was a thick layer of prawns on the toast and that satay sauce on the chicken was great. Our combined favourite though, was the black bean beef which had a real spicy kick that I loved. At points, I was drinking the sauce on a spoon and I have no shame.

So overall, a great meal. Really familiar and comforting English style Chinese food, generous portions, and at half price it felt like an absolute steal. The bill came to just over £73 including tip making it less than £25 a head. And we were stuffed!!